In Parashat Beshalach, Pharoah sends out the Jewish people.
Many people might not realize this, but if you read the pesukim you’ll see that Moshe Rabbenu initially only asked for a three day break- he didn’t ask to leave and never come back, and he and Pharoah negotiated. At first Pharoah would only let the men go, then only the men and the animals, and so on, until finally he let the men, women, children and a lot of animals go for what he thought was a three day break. When the Jewish people didn’t come back after three days, Pharoah decided to chase after them.
What is going on here? Why didn’t Moshe just tell Pharoah that they were leaving and not coming back? If it took ten plagues to let them leave for three days, why not just give them 100 plagues and leave for good? This whole decimation was for for three days? What’s going on?
Furthermore, it says that Hashem told Moshe to please ask the Jewish people to borrow gold and silver from their Egyptian bosses. That also sounds strange! Why borrow if they were never coming back? That’s why it says that G-d had to beg the Jewish people to take the valuables, because they didn’t want to take them. They just wanted to leave. It’s like asking a fellow who is leaving prison to now go and steal the guard’s watch. He just wants to walk out. Now he has to borrow the watch, and tell him that he’s coming back in three days? It would make problems.
And sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. Because we borrowed their silver and gold for three days, it created a greater incentive to chase us to come back. If we didn’t have their gold and silver, the Egyptians would have simply said good bye and good riddance- who needs these Jews anymore?!
So what’s going on? Why is G-d doing this?
The Derashot HaRan says that this shows the ways of G-d, that we can never understand. Everything is measured and everything is planned.
One may wonder: What right did we have to fool the Egyptians and take their money? Well, they made us work for 210 years and they didn’t pay us. So they owed us money. They originally made us work for them in tricky ways, by saying there would be a work tax, but eventually made us work without pay. So because it was done in a tricky way, midah knegged midah, we would get paid back in a tricky way. This legalized the fact that we “borrowed” from them. But why the whole set up for the chase?
Again, the Derashot HaRan says that G-d punishes measure for measure. Since the Egyptians had drowned the Jewish babies, they had to be drowned as well. But how would Hashem get them into Yam Suf?
They would have to come chase after the Jews. Had the Jews simply left, the Mitzrim may not have pursued them. But since the Jews had their gold and silver, they would chase after them.
More than that, if you recall, the Jews were traveling and then were told to travel backwards to Baal Tzafon, which the Egyptians considered the idol of wealth (or the god of hidden treasures, from tzafon-hidden). They assumed that their god of hidden treasures was demanding justice, because we stole their money. They thought it was safe to chase the Jews, because they felt that the Jews had swindled them and that the god of wealth was on their side.
This was all a plan. As it was happening though, the Jews didn’t understand what was going on. They wanted to go back home! No one would ever think that it was all a plan to have the Egyptians give chase, in order to get them to charge into the sea and let the waves come crashing down on them!
Rabbenu Bachya says that we are holding at the cusp of redemption and it looks like we are doomed. So if that is what was going on then, it is going to be the exact same way today.
As it says in the Navi, “Just like I took you out of Egypt, I’ll show you miracles “referring to when Mashiah comes.”
So if you’re in a situation and you feel like you’re at the lowest of the low, it’s really the point of redemption.
What makes it happen? Emunah and Bitachon. Like the pasuk says,
דבר בני ישראל ויסעו
Tell the Jewish people to travel forward.
The Or HaChaim HaKaddosh said that they were at a point where prayer wouldn’t help them. It wasn’t the time to pray, it was the time to rely on Hashem and have bitachon. And when you have bitachon, the sea splits and the redemption comes.
Be’ezrat Hashem we will strengthen our bitachon, and we will bring the Mashiah
במהרה בימינו אמן
Shabbat Shalom